


Dragons

by Faeymouse



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Darth Vader Redemption, Everybody Lives, F/M, Gen, OBI-WAN GOT HARDEEN'D, suited vader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24832015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faeymouse/pseuds/Faeymouse
Summary: Years after Mustafar, Obi-Wan is discovered on Tatooine. He must face Anakin Skywalker once more, but their meeting goes much differently than expected.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 19
Kudos: 129





	Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all,
> 
> So, to start (since this opening author's note is gonna be a bit long), this fic was posted up on here once before! It was originally under a different username, but if you recognize it I would just like to assure you that, yes, it's deffo the same person.
> 
> Secondly, I'm back! To keep a long story as short as possible, back in March I dealt with a rather traumatic personal issue that was made worse by finding out I was being stalked under this username. The issue has since been dealt with, and as part of the healing process and regaining my confidence/control, I've decided to post up my old fic once more. The biggest change will be that they will only be available to read by registered users on here.
> 
> (That being said, I do have other places to read them. Including a Dreamwidth community collection - that requires an account and acceptance to view - and my almost-a-decade-old-now FFN account. The dreamwidth community is called **Faeymouse_fic** , and FFN is under the name **faeymouse** as well. Pick your poison on where you'd like best to read them, though it is important to note that old one-shots like this one will only be available to read on the Dreamwidth archive - at least for the time being. I just needed a first fic to usher in my grand return, and this one was one of my old favorites)
> 
> Lastly, I want to say thank you to everyone that has still stuck around even after The Big Delete. I know it was one helluva shock, but if there was ever a year that it had to happen, I suppose this one was best? I'm eager to be back.
> 
> Enjoy~!

Fifteen planetary revolutions, two months, and eleven day cycles after Obi-Wan had to come to Tatooine, Anakin finds him.

It's easy enough to sense such a powerful presence in the Force, though for a second Obi-Wan is convinced there is more than one. The thought quickly flees his mind when a tall behemoth, more man than machine, steps over his threshold, limned by the setting sun.

Obi-Wan stands up from his storage chest, which he'd been idly going through not a moment before.

"Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan squares his jaw. "Vader." he bites out. "Finally managed to find me?"

It's absolutely impossible to read the Sith's impassive mask.

"I always knew you were here."

That catches Obi-Wan off-guard, for a bare second. "If that's so," he asks, taking one step across the dirt floor of his home, "Then why did you wait so long to come here?"

"Because the Rebellion was not yet strong enough to fight the Empire, and bringing the Emperor's attention here would have only led to disaster." Vader hooks his thumbs into his belt, a pose Anakin had always done when he'd been anxious. "Now we are, and we need you."

Obi-Wan's mind runs blank as it processes Vader's words, and as synapses snap together and he realizes exactly what he's just been told, Obi-Wan is sure heat stroke must have finally claimed him.

"We?" he asks. "You aren't part of the Rebellion."

Vader simply stands there.

"I'm not like those younglings you once killed, Vader," Obi-Wan snarls. "I am not so easily lied to."

"You may need to rethink that, because those younglings never died."  
Obi-Wan scoffs. What in the blazes was this? He was definitely hallucinating out in the wastes somewhere. "You killed them. I saw it."

Vader tilts his head to the side, and for a moment Obi-Wan fancies that he can hear a very Anakin-esque sigh amidst the automated breaths.  
"It was fabricated, just as Padmé's death was. I didn't kill those younglings; I saved them. With help from Ahsoka and Asajj, and they've been trained on Dagobah by Yoda and Mace Windu."

He knew where Yoda was? And what was this about Mace? There are so many questions flying around in Obi-Wan's head that he settles for the one that has absolutely nothing to do with Jedi that should, or should be, dead. "You getting along with Ventress?" Obi-Wan snorts before he can stop himself from laughing because of this... traitor. "Now I know this is a bloody trick."

"It is no trick, my old Master."

"Do not call me that."

Even Obi-Wan is surprised by the caustic, vehement tone of his words, and it scares him. He's back for all of five minutes, and already Vader is igniting emotion in him that should best be kept  
buried.

**That's unhealthy, Obi-Wan**

"Coming from the ghost," Obi-Wan mutters at Qui-Gon's disembodied voice echoing in his head.

He almost forgets Vader is there as he waits for a response from his own former Master.

"Who are you speaking to?"

Obi-Wan twitches and shakes his head. "No one." He takes a deep breath, steeling himself, and drops into a (rather sloppy) fighting stance. "If you're here to kill me, leave aside the lies and get on with it."

Now that was undeniably an exasperated Anakin sigh he heard. Vader unclips his lightsaber from his belt and tosses it into the corner before holding up his hands placatingly.

"I am not here to kill you," he says, slowly.

"Then what are you here for?" Obi-Wan demands, thoughts immediately turning to Luke. "If you think you can bring me or anyone else back to the Empire, you are sorely mistaken."

"I am not here to do that either. I would never take you," Vader pauses."Or my son back to that circus."

At the mention of Luke, Obi-Wan's lightsaber is already in his hands and ignited. He doesn't realize it's Anakin's old one he'd left sitting out until Vader points it out.

"You kept it." There's an almost soft edge to his words, and Obi-Wan can't stand it.  
"You know about your son? How?"

Vader turns his attention back to the smaller man. "Padmé told me."

This was the biggest farce yet. "You KILLED your wife! I was there when she died."

Deep down, Obi-Wan wishes to be told that was a lie as well by Vader, hopes it, despite his better judgement, but it isn't a deep, robotic baritone that tells him so.

It's a firm, regal voice, followed by a small form coming inside behind Vader and standing silhouetted by the setting suns.

"I"m insulted. I wouldn't die that easily."  
And it's the same face, if a little more aged; the same kind, fierce smile, the same dark, dancing eyes. Her hair is shorter, greyer, but still up in an almost mockingly fancy style.

Obi-Wan's lightsaber falls, disigniting as it does.

"You're alive?"

Padmé Amidala smiles a little wider, the look more sad than anything else.  
"It's good to see you again, Obi-Wan."

"But...but.." Obi-Wan stutters, something he rarely does. "I saw you die. I was there. I--"

"It was necessary to fake it." Padmé's gaze drops, and a large gloved hand comes to rest on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry, but for the good of the galaxy and for my children, you couldn't know."

Obi-Wan's voice is a hoarse whisper. "Why not?"

Vader is the one who speaks then, and for the first time since the giant monstrosity had walked into his hut coated in dust, Obi-Wan can actually listen to him.

"Your reaction sold it."

And now Obi-Wan does laugh. Ironic, that. He had always worried that his stint as Rako Hardeen would have lasting effects, but certainly nothing of this kriffing magnitude.

A salty wetness rolls across his lips. He reaches his fingers up to his eye, and the tips come back wet.

"Well," Obi-Wan sniffs, and pulls a sandy sleeve beneath his nose. It leaves grit behind in his beard. "I didn't make you wait years to know."

_It had all been a lie._

_Everything._

Mace had realized from the moment Anakin came to him that Palpatine had been trying to turn the young man. Yoda's -- as well as his own-- murky visions finally made sense. The Clone Wars had been a revolting puppet game perpetrated by a single mad individual. They had been tricked.

But the realization had come too late. The Jedi Order as they had always known it was finished. Gone.

They had only one choice.

Mace's "death" had been orchestrated. Padmé's "death" had been orchestrated. Even the murder of the Temple younglings had been orchestrated. It was all done on such an epic scale that it makes Obi-Wan's head spin.

The sun has set and Obi-Wan's hut is dark save for a few stray, half-charged working lights. Both husband and wife (a -- fake-- enforcer of the Empire and ad hoc leader of the Rebellion, respectively) had explained it all in great detail, from why they'd kept their children separated and hidden to how many Jedi were still alive after the events of Order 66.

Obi-Wan is more pleased than anything else at the numbers, even if many were still on the run with no idea that so many of their fellows had survived.

Yet, his head is aching and his eyes are pulsing. Obi-Wan knows he'll need to hear all of this again and again before it properly sticks.

It had all been a lie. He had nearly killed his best friend for a lie.

And now Padmé's hands are dancing across Vader's chest controls like she was born to it, because Vader wants to talk to him face to face.

"Don't keep it off too long, Ani," she states for the third time. "All this sand could ruin the systems."

Vader nods, hands moving up to his helmet as steam pours out of the unlocking neck joints.

"This is what I get for hating it all my life. Now the sand can actually kill me."

Padmé chuckles softly as she steps to the side, encouraging Obi-Wan to move closer.  
"It's a bit difficult to hear him." she explains.

So Obi-Wan takes a few tentative steps forward as Vader removes his helmet. The glossed black metal comes off in pieces, and with each bit of scarred, sun-starved grey flesh that is revealed, Obi-Wan feels another small bit of the almost-peace he had gained on Tatooine shriveling up and falling away.

Scars litter his skin like freckles, from tiny needle pricks to completely warped flesh. The worst of them are two thick, raised ones across Vader's scalp and right cheek, while the bottom half of his face is partly covered by a grill and vocal emulator.

Vader catches his horrified look and raises hairless brows above his eyes -- Anakin's eyes -- that are still the pale blue of a Tatooine sky at midday.

"You don't look so good yourself, old man." Vader says in a low rasp.

Obi-Wan swallows down a laugh, his lips quirking up in a shaky half-smile. It doesn't last. "What... have you become?" _I did this to you. It's my fault._

Vader watches him a moment with his true eyes, and then replaces his helmet. The locks clicking closed with a hiss. Padmé's fingers are already flying across his chest controls once more, stabilizing them after the single moment of pause.

"I have accepted what I am, and I have forgiven you." Vader says, before placing a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. It's his old mechno one, the feel and weight so similar even with the gauntlet that Obi-Wan can almost pretend nothing has changed.

But it has. Obi-Wan did this to him. To his apprentice; his friend, who had never even turned. He was an old fool who could never fix his endless mistakes.

The hand squeezes, grounding him, and Obi-Wan looks up at his reflection in black, insect- like glass.

"Now you must forgive yourself, Obi-Wan."

**Author's Note:**

> -Inspired by **[this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ09xdxzIJQ)** video. A few of the final lines in this are inspired/ taken from it as well, and so is the title!  
> -Originally posted on May 18th, 2016  
> -I can also be found at faeymouse over on Tumblr, if what you're really here for is my radiant personality and opinions


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